The Road to Insanity
by RainFlame
Summary: It’s not as easy as it looks. Becoming insane, that is. Rated T for the possibility of future violence.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys! Well, this is my second multi-chapter fic. Hope you all enjoy! :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy, but Demetri is mine XD

* * *

It's not as easy as it looks. Becoming insane, that is. At least, it wasn't for me. I'm still not certain I'm all the way there, seeing as how I have moments of clarity, times when I realize what I've done and am struck by the full force of my actions. Those, to me, are almost more unbearable then the memories of my madness.

It hasn't always been this way. I haven't always been plagued by this psychosis. It is more or less a recent development. As Genesis would say, stories always have a beginning.

* * *

I held my ground and stared my opponent down. His eyes flashed with barely concealed mirth as he kicked out a leg. I blocked it and dealt a blow to his abdomen, but my heart wasn't in it.

"Aw, come on Sephiroth," Demetri said, rubbing the spot. "You're hitting like a girl."

"You've never met one," I said. "How would you know?"

"I wouldn't," he responded, assuming a fighter's stance again. But I saw things that most ten year olds don't catch. The way he swayed to keep his balance, the new pallor of his face, the sweat that he normally didn't acquire until hours into a fight.

Demetri wasn't well.

I let him land a few more blows to keep his score up. In this place, for this particular project, scores were everything. They meant the difference between surviving the project and being "expelled" from it.

Needless to say, expulsion was a death sentence unless Hojo found some other use for you.

"Time!" Hojo's voice rang out from the speaker on the wall. Demetri and I stopped our fight. I crossed my arms and backed away while Demetri remained where he was, planting his hands on his knees and panting.

Hojo came hobbling into the simulation room, looking all the world like he had dislocated something in his neck. Demetri always insisted he resembled a camel. Hojo stopped before us and peered over his clipboard, giving me a strange look. Not that he had ever regarded me with anything akin to respect. It was always like he was gazing at an intriguing specimen, but he had never been particularly surprised by anything I had done.

It made me nervous. Change in Hojo never meant anything good for us specimens.

"Something wrong?" Demetri inquired from behind me. He used that snide voice he seemed to reserve especially for Hojo.

Demetri, like me, was a fellow specimen, but that is where our similarities end. I am tall for a ten year old. He is shorter than average. I am well muscled for a boy that hadn't even hit puberty yet. He is thin and wiry. I have green eyes glowing with Mako and silver hair that hangs between my shoulder blades down to my thighs. He has bright emerald eyes and black hair he wears swept up in a short tail. I am quiet and reserved. He is loud and outspoken.

Yet despite our differences, he is the closest thing I have to a friend.

Hojo glared at Demetri, but he had learned long ago that punishments never did anything for his attitude and rebukes seemed to spur him on. "It would seem that S I has improved his score in the simulation yet again. _You_, on the other hand, D IX, have experienced a decline in yours."

Demetri stepped up beside me and arched a single brow. "Fascinating," he remarked, his tone informing that he found the information anything but.

Hojo's scowl deepened as he scribbled on his clipboard. "You haven't been doing well in any of the physical evaluations recently, D IX. Do you have an excuse for this?"

"Sure," Demetri nodded.

Hojo looked up from his notes when no explanation came. "Well?"

"It's the food," he informed bluntly. "I can't take much more of it. I may stop eating all together."

Hojo wasn't impressed by the boy's overdramatic display. "Get back to your room. Both of you. I'll send an aid for you when I'm ready."

"Sure thing, Professor," Demetri said with a grin, waltzing out of the simulation room like he owned the place. Like he wasn't just a specimen.

I followed behind him at some distance, afraid that if I traveled too close I would be hit in the abdomen by one of his wildly swinging arms.

"You shouldn't goad Hojo," I admonished once we were well down the hallway and out of earshot.

"It's good for him. Character building and whatnot." He stilled his arms and slowed his pace to walk beside me.

"He'll have you beaten. And you're not well. What if he finds out and sees no value in keeping you around?"

He shrugged. "Then I'll get out of this place. It doesn't make too much difference to me if it's in a uniform or a body bag."

"Don't say things like that!" I admonished sharply, pinning a glare on him.

He chuckled at my scolding. "We all lose the game at some point or another. And at the moment, there's not much here to be attached to. At least I have something to look forward to in the next life."

"Like what?" I demanded. "Floating around in the planet until your soul is recycled?"

He laughed again. "There's a bit more to it than that, Sephiroth." I waited for him to elaborate, but he didn't.

We reached the room Demetri and I shared. It wasn't a large room, by any means. It contained two cots, two desks, two dressers filled with our meager belongings, and a small shower room connected to the far wall. Art projects from our younger years served as the only decorations on the white paneled walls and the only color to be found. Everything else was white.

"How are you feeling now?" I asked my friend, seating myself on my own cot and stretching across it.

"Peachy keen," he responded, collapsing on his own bed. "Just because I don't seem to have the endurance I used to doesn't mean I'm an invalid. I practically beat you today, if you will recall."

I could hear the smile in his voice and almost didn't want to burst his bubble. Almost. "I let you."

"Irrelevant," he responded with a wave of his hand. "If you weren't under the influence of my vastly superior intellect you wouldn't have allowed it. I bent your will to do my bidding. You can start addressing me as 'Master' now," he added as an afterthought.

I snorted, a smirk of my own tugging at my lips. "You're ego is almost intolerable."

"It's part of my charm. It's why Molly likes me."

I propped my head on my arm so I could get a better look at his face. "Demetri, Molly is a _bird_."

"And she loves me. You really can't blame her, though. With all of this wit and charisma, I'm irresistible."

"She's also mentally impaired from Mako Poisoning."

"Don't be so shallow," he admonished. "Have you seen that new cat they brought in? I think his label said 'Red XIII'."

I shook my head. "Professor Gast said something about it, but I haven't seen it myself."

"I heard a few of the white coats talking about him. He's supposed to be the last of his species."

"Then why is he labeled 'XIII'? Shouldn't he be 'Red I?" I asked with a frown. Generally the numbers we were given represented our order in the project. I was S I because I was the first to undergo what Hojo called the 'Silver Project'. Demetri was IX because he was the ninth to undergo the 'Super Soldier Project'.

Demetri shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me. Wanna have a look tonight?"

"No," I responded in a flat voice. Unauthorized outings with Demetri usually ended poorly.

"Don't be such a kill joy, Sephiroth," he complained. "How do you expect to have fun if you never try?"

"I don't expect to have fun, Demetri. We live in a prison," I pointed out. In case he was having trouble with his grasp on reality.

"Of course. But that doesn't mean we can't work with what we've got."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"What if I do your next history assignment? Free of charge?"

"No."

"I'll throw in Literature and even clean your half of the room for a week."

"…Deal."

* * *

Well, hope you enjoyed chapter one! I must say I haven't ever attempted writing a character like Demetri, but I will do my best not to make him irritating. He probably won't stick around very long unless people like him. He's basically there because I thought the first half of Sephiroth's life would be boring without someone else to make things interesting XD

Thanks for reading chapter one! I hope to have an update out in about a week.

God Bless,

-RainFlame


	2. Chapter 2

Hey! So, here's chapter 2.

Hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but Demetri and the story line XD

* * *

I watched with a bit of anxiety as Demetri wiggled the grate over the vent that was over his bed. It made a horrible squeal that hurt my sensitive ears as the metal scraped over metal. I winced. "Demetri, we're going to get caught. You're making enough noise to wake the dead."

He didn't respond. He was too busy making faces at the grate. Like that was going to help.

"Why don't you let me try?" I asked finally.

He gave another noisy tug before turning to glance at me. "Why would I do that?"

"Because I might be able to do it without letting the whole building know," I responded matter-of-factly.

"Half the fun is the chance that we'll get caught, Sephiroth," he informed in the same tone. "If we're going to do this at all, we may as well do it right."

"You're insane."

"Why thank you. It's good of you to notice." He gave the grate another tug. It still didn't budge and his breathing was becoming more and more ragged. Suddenly, his expression brightened. "Hey, Sephiroth, I just had a brilliant idea! What if I let you open the grate?"

I restrained the desire to throttle him. "Move. You are completely useless."

He leapt down lightly from the bed, still maintaining his grace despite his exhaustion. "My mother said that to me once. I didn't believe her. Do you think it's true?" he asked with mock concern.

Demetri, unlike myself, had lived outside the Science Department's floors until the age of six. He had had a family, with a mother and a father and a little brother. From what little information he had disclosed on the subject, I gleaned that they had died in a car wreck and Hojo found him in an orphanage. Past that, I knew nothing. Sometimes I could get him to talk about what was outside these walls, for I only knew what I heard from the other scientists' gossip and what I saw in pictures. But he would soon grow quiet, absorbed in the memories.

"I don't think that deems a response," I said, climbing on the bed and firmly fixing my hands on the grate's bars. I gave a hard, purposeful yank. The grate fell open easily enough, dangling by its hinges.

"You are such an overachiever," Demetri whined, jumping back on the bed. "Who goes first?"

"This is your little venture. You should probably lead it." I stepped back to allow him room.

"You sure?" he asked. "I wouldn't want your pride to walk away from this night broken and torn because you let me lead the way."

"Shut up and get yourself in that vent."

With a cheeky grin he bounced on the bed and up into the shaft, climbing inside and out of sight. I sighed in resignation before following. I knew we were going to run into trouble of some kind before the night was done.

The vent was even darker than our room, but my eyes soon adjusted and I could clearly see Demetri up ahead. I crawled after him, both of us careful to keep quiet. Hojo had specifically ordered the vents off limits and had taken extra precautions to ensure we wouldn't use it again. But that was at least three months ago, in which time we had removed the extra screws and the new shield he had placed over it and been out two times.

I followed him down the shaft impatiently. He could be so slow sometimes. I wanted to get in, get out, then return to our room. Preferably without getting caught.

We finally arrived in one of the specimen rooms Demetri insisted the giant cat occupied. We stopped as he worked the grate, this one popping open much more easily than the last had for him, and with a feline grace, he dropped from the opening. I followed after him, landing in a crouch beside him.

The room was lit by several specimen tanks lined up against one of the walls. Boxes and crates filled every available space, only allowing room for small walkways in between.

"Are you sure this is the right room?" I asked softly, trying to see over the boxes to the tanks. I couldn't make out any shapes therein.

"Oh ye of little faith. When are you going to figure out that I'm always right?" he asked, skipping off toward the tanks with a smug smile on his lips.

I followed him at a slower pace and found him at a tank. The blue light spilled out over him, turning him a sickly pale color as he stared inside at the thing curled up in the corner.

It was a giant red cat. The creature would at least come up to my chest or higher with a stiff mane of fur that trailed down his neck. His massive paws sported long claws and his ankles were encircled with thick golden bands. The fur on his shoulder was shaved and a fresh tattoo was inked into the skin that said "Red XIII". His tail was strange in that at the tip, instead of a tuft of fur, a flame burned. One of his eyes was scarred shut, but the other had its golden orb fixed on us.

"Hey, kitty," Demetri said, placing a hand on the glass. "How's it going?"

"Obviously, not well."

Demetri blinked. I blinked.

"Uh, I'm sorry, but did you just say something?" Demetri asked the cat, his voice calm.

If I was not imagining it, I think I saw a smile cross the animal's lips. "I said, 'Not well'. And how are you?"

A talking cat? I had never heard of such a thing. Of course, there were a lot of things I had never heard of. Did many animals talk like this? I had never seen any of the other specimens do this.

"Sephiroth, I think I'm losing my mind. Can we go back now?"

"Hush," I ordered, moving closer to inspect the cat. It looked like a normal cat, all things considered. "How is it you can talk?"

He twitched an ear. "How is it _you_ came to talk? I've been able to speak my whole life, the same as you," he explained, his voice a gentle cadence.

I paused for a moment, trying to wrap my mind around it. "What's your name?"

"I believe it is 'Red XIII', now," he said, raising his head and cocking it to the side. "And yours?"

"Sephiroth," I replied slowly. "And this is Demetri."

"Fellow specimens, I take it?" he asked.

"Only on weekdays and weekends," Demetri informed brightly.

Red XIII cocked an eyebrow and I gave him a withering look before turning back to the cat. "Do you know why you're here?"

He shook his head. "I overheard something about 'continuing the species', but I don't know how or why."

"You're the last?" I asked.

"Yes."

A thump sounded somewhere in the hall outside the room, causing both Demetri and I to stiffen and Red XIII to swivel his ears toward the door.

"We should skedaddle," Demetri whispered.

I nodded. "Perhaps we will see you again soon," I said to the cat.

He inclined his head. "I should like that very much."

I stared for a minute until Demetri grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me away into the sea of crates. The thumping sounded again and we climbed on a nearby crate before disappearing from Red's view into the vent.

* * *

Red's one of my favorite characters. I don't know why...

I would love to know how I'm doing, so please review! I've never done a story like this before, so it's kind of an experiment. I would also like to know if you have any suggestions/ideas of where to take this. I just have a general plot going.

God Bless,

-RainFlame


	3. Chapter 3

Hello!

Okay, so here we have chapter three. I have another fic going, and since no one else seems that interested in this one, it's kind of on the back burner.

**thatotherguy:** *shrugs* have no idea .-.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy. Woe is me.

* * *

The lights came on early in the morning, making Demetri groan. I sat up as Hojo's voice rang out over the intercom with orders to ready ourselves for the day.

"Jus' five more minutes," Demetri grumbled, rolling over and burying his head in his pillow.

"Now!" Hojo bellowed. "Or no breakfast!"

"Slave driver," he mumbled, rolling out of bed. He looked a mess, with bags under his eyes and his raven hair skewed and disheveled. I think he looked paler than he had the day before.

"How do you feel?" I asked quietly, knowing my voice wouldn't be picked up by the microphone.

"Same as yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that," he said, standing and walking over to the adjoining shower room. I detected the subtle irritation he masked so well in his voice. He was tired of being reminded.

"Have you asked Professor Gast about it?" I inquired, rising myself.

He turned and arched an eyebrow at me like I had lost my mind. "Trying to get rid of me, Sephiroth? You know he'd have to report it to Hojo, or Hojo would find out some other way. Then I'd be 'put down' like a dog and that'd be that. I may not be afraid of dying, but I'm not in any real hurry. And what would you do without me? I mean really. When I got here, you had the personality of a rock. Thanks to me, you have a chance at getting a girlfriend."

"Don't change the subject," I ordered. "You're looking worse by the day, and Hojo will pick up on it eventually."

"Then I guess that'll be that," he repeated. "No sense in hurrying it along by reporting to Gast." He then disappeared into the shower room.

With a sigh I followed him.

We showered, changed clothes and Demetri cleaned the room. A man in a white coat opened the door with a tray of food (or something along those lines) and left quickly after delivering it, locking the door again behind him.

We ate in relative silence before two more white coats walked in to take us to the injection lab, where we both received our respective injections. I received a cocktail of Mako and "Jenova Plasma", while Demetri got a Mako shower. The procedures used to make us sick for a day or so, but we had soon developed something of an immunity to the unpleasant side effects.

After that, instead of going to the learning room, we past it and continued down the hall.

"What gives?" Demetri demanded of our escorts. "I was all set to have my young, moldable mind filled to the brim with science, arithmetic, and world history with a Shinra twist."

The employees around here had learned to ignore Demetri's comments. "Hojo has something special planned for you," one replied in a bored tone.

"Oh, wow. I'm all excited now. What is it?"

I roughly elbowed him in the side, making him stagger a few steps. I felt a little guilty, but the feeling vanished when I saw the mock indignation on his face. "You're going to make whatever this is worse," I said in a voice so low, only those with Mako enhanced hearing could possibly pick up on it.

He obediently quieted, but I could see his irritated countenance. Annoying his captors was one of the few things he seemed to really enjoy.

We reached another room further down the hall. It was spacious enough, with a long metallic table, a few potted plants, and no windows. At the end of the table sat a thin man reading something in a manila folder with my picture pinned in front of it. A similar file with Demetri's picture sat on the table before him.

I recognized the man before me, but only vaguely. I had seen his picture in one of our papers in class. He was the Director of SOLDIER, Lazard. He had a narrow face with chin length blond hair and wire glasses perched on his nose. He wore a pinstripe suit that was a strange purple color and white gloves on his hands.

"Ah, Sephiroth, Demetri," he greeted us with a smile and set the folder down. "Please, sit down." He gestured to the chairs on his left.

I did as he asked, taking the seat next to him. Demetri followed suit behind me, sitting to my left.

"Leave us, please," he said to the white coats. They obeyed, shutting the door behind them.

"I am Director Lazard," he introduced, still wearing a warm smile. "I am here representing SOLDIER. Has Hojo told you why you're here?"

"Something about 'blazing new trails in the name of science and showing all of those blasted Shinra suits what I am _really_capable of'!" Demetri announced in his best Hojo impersonation. "Or, at least that's what he told me on specimen initiation week."

Lazard chuckled lightly. "Interesting, Demetri, but I meant why you were _here_," he gestured to the room.

"No," I answered quickly before Demetri launched himself on another tangent.

Lazard considered this for a moment, his eyebrows coming together in a delicate frown. "I see. Well, I have been after Hojo to allow you two into SOLDIER for a long time now, and he has finally granted his permission, after you undergo a field test. I asked to be the one to brief you on the subject."

"Why?" I inquired suspiciously. No one asked to see us. No one visited. The only people we ever saw had white coats and nasty dispositions. What was this man's interest in us? Aside from benefiting from us joining SOLDIER, he had little to gain from a personal visit, as far as I could tell. It bothered me.

"I wanted to meet you. Hojo has mentioned you several times and seemed to have nothing but good things to say."

"Warm fuzzies," Demetri commented. "What's this 'field test'?"

"Very simple, yet very dangerous."

"Should be fun, then."

Lazard seemed to have a lot of patience, for he only gave Demetri a sympathetic glance. That bothered me too. "You and Sephiroth are to spend two weeks out in the Nibel Mountains alone. All you will have with you will be a first aid kit. If you both survive, you will make it into the SOLDIER program."

I arched an eyebrow. "Is this standard procedure for all SOLDIER candidates?"

"No," Lazard shook his head. "As I said, this was the only way Hojo would allow for your release." He seemed genuinely troubled over it.

"Sounds about right," Demetri nodded. "Needs one last chance to kill us off before we leave."

A humorless smile crossed the director's lips. "The Nibel Mountains are a very dangerous area. The monster count is very high, and Nibel Dragons are certainly a force to be reckoned with. I don't have too much time at my disposal here, so I will have to make this brief and to the point-".

* * *

"I don't like lizards," Demetri commented on our way back to our room. "Especially big ones that eat people."

"We'll be fine," I said. I was both terrified and excited. I had never been outside before. I wanted to see all of the things Demetri had told me about and the things I had read about in books. I wanted to touch a tree and feel sunshine and see other people, how they looked and what they did. I wanted to see a bird and other animals with my own eyes.

But I didn't want to leave the safety I had here. I had been on this floor of the Shinra building my whole life. And Demetri…there was no help out there for him in the mountains. What if he became worse? What if he died?

"Of course we'll be fine," he said with mock cheeriness. "Man-eating lizards have nothing on the great Sephiroth, do they? I'm sure you can wipe the floor with their scaly behinds."

"Don't mock me, Demetri," I said darkly. "We'll get through it, then we'll be free of Hojo. We'll be in SOLDIER and, with any luck, we'll never have to see his face again."

"I don't have luck, Sephiroth. I'll be back here afterwards, you'll see." He sounded very sure of that. I didn't like it.

"Not if I get any say in it," I promised.

"That's very nice of you, Sephiroth, but very vain. That ego of yours isn't good for you. It blinds you to my awesomeness."

I sighed, but let him change the subject. We didn't speak anymore of where we were going in the morning or what the next two weeks might hold for us. We just lied awake in silence for most of the night, lost to our own thoughts and fears.

* * *

Like I've said, this is sort of an experiment, and I'd like to know if it's a complete failure, or if it just needs some fixing up, or if I should keep going :T

If you have comments/ideas/constructive criticism, I'd love to hear it. Please review!

God Bless,

-RainFlame


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